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This is my first post, I have been a long time lurker.
I have been trying to come up with a middle of the road solution for replacing my head unit for about a year. I finally brought it all together over the last weekend.
I used an OPTI-1 (From NAV-TV) and a nice Android Car Kit based head unit from seicane.com. I will put links below if I am allowed.
The install took about 4.5 hours overall, which wasn't too bad, but I had only budgeted 2 hours for it and managed to make my wife pretty irritated while finishing it up! :o)
The head unit cost $505 and is a Quad core Cortex A-9 with Android 4.4.4. It includes wifi, 3G dongle, Bluetooth based OBD2 interface and preloaded navigation as well as Google Maps.
Here is a shot of the head unit.
The HU came with wiring harness and CANBUS connector. I ended up not using either one and making a custom harness using the terminal that theirs came with...this is what put me into overtime with it. The CANBUS reportedly would allow use of the steering wheel controls, but I couldn't manage to get them to work at all!
The sound is pretty good, though it is a bit muddier than the OEM stereo, probably due to the OPTI-1 only having two channels for sound. I believe that having more detail with 4 channels would clean it up a bit.
I read a couple of reviews on the forums where people said they had a whine coming from it at times, but I haven't heard any such thing. It seems very clean, just not as detailed as the OEM sound.
All together I paid about $1100.00 in order to get it all setup, and considering that a total new sound package, speakers, amps, HU, etc that I priced was around $3800, I feel it was worth while and not too crazy of a price.
I was fairly paranoid about ordering the stereo from a company in China, not just because of the price, but shipping and quality of the product were worries as well. I am very happy with the quality of the HU, it is very responsive and hasn't shown any "lag" or insensativity when using the touch screen. If anyone is interested in more pics, let me know, I can post a few.
i have a 1999 clk320 im trying to install an aftermarket pioneer head unit and (2) 12" subs with amp, i have the wiring harness that the vehicle calls for but it has RCA jacks for the speaker wires?!?!?! where do these run to? is it supposed to run to the factory amp for the speakers. please someone talk me through hooking this thing up. ill be most grateful.
10-05-2015, 07:46 PM
